Getting Around

Naples is without question one of the more chaotic cities in Europe, but it has a few swift and cheap train lines. Often taxis will be your only option, and unfortunately they are not cheap nor are they easy to hail from the street (ask your hotel or restaurant to call one for you). The city is large and hilly, but the historic center around the Decumani is easily negotiated on foot; have your taxi drop you at the Santa Chiara or the Duomo.

Where to Stay

Positioned on the lower slopes of Vomero, the city’s great nineteenth-century hotel has sweeping views across the Bay of Naples toward Vesuvius. It’s hit-or-miss service-wise, but that’s part of the charm. Rooms are lofty, with sea-view balconies, and the cavernous public spaces swarm with marble busts and potted palms. On the roof is George’s, a landmark restaurant with lovely vistas (39-081-761-2474; doubles from $472).

On a quiet street just off the elegant and refined Piazza dei Martiri, this hotel in central Naples is set behind a secluded courtyard. Rooms are classical, simple, and plush; breakfast, in a pretty salon, is the usual baked goods and cold cuts. The circular lobby feels like a cozy drawing room removed from the bustle of the city (39-081-415-278; doubles from $337).

This waterfront hotel near the ferry docks is a Philippe Starck–y space: all steel and glass and high-tech rooms with views of Vesuvius. There’s a ground-floor sushi bar and a rooftop restaurant, Il Comandante, which is excellent. And the taxi drivers actually know where it is—an advantage you will come to appreciate (39-081-017-5001; doubles from $270).

Where to Eat

1 Jap-One

In recent years, sushi has become popular in Naples, and the Piazza dei Martiri is the place to head for fun sushi joints. Chic, crowded, and youthful, Jap-One is at the end of a winding backstreet behind the square—the walk there is beautiful, passing under what looks like urban cliffs and rockfaces (Via Santa Maria a Cappella Vecchia 30; 39-081-764-6667; entrées from $30).

2 Kukai Nibu

The slightly cramped but high-design interior seems incongruous on this typical Neapolitan street, but the sushi is good and so is the people-watching: couples wandering in from the nearby San Carlo opera house (Via Carlo de Cesare 52; 39-081-425-888; entrées from $16).

3 La Notizia

To avoid the long waits at Naples’ most popular pizza temples, take a long cab ride to Posillipo and the Via Michelangelo da Caravaggio, which winds up the hillside to what may be the city’s best pizza place. Here, Enzo Coccia’s comfortable pizzeria is filled with the right kind of familial bustle. The simplest pie on offer, Marinara D.O.P., made with San Marzano tomatoes and Le Tore olive oil, is as good as any pizza in the world. Pair the ripieno, which comes topped with ricotta di bufala, with a G. Menabrea e Figli craft beer (Via Caravaggio 53/55; 39-081-714-2155; entrées from $6).

Toby Glanville

Naples may be gritty, but its food is pure pleasure. Plating a dish of octopus (not surprisingly, the seafood offerings here are spectacular).

A veritable Naples institution next to the raffish, if not appalling, Piazza Garibaldi, this Belle Époque sort of place has lovely, crowded, vaulted rooms and equally old-fashioned but intensely gratifying food. There may be no better handmade ricotta anywhere (Via Alfonso D’Aragona 19/21; 39-081-553-8525; entrées from $2).

5 Palazzo Petrucci

Tucked into a corner of the Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, right next to the church, it has small, intimate rooms and an exquisite refinement not always easy to find among Naples’ earthy eateries (Piazza San Domenico Maggiore 4; 39-081-552-4068; entrées from $27).

6 Tender

On the same alley as Jap-One, this sushi place from the same restaurant group is just as good . . . without being quite as manic (Via Santa Maria a Cappella Vecchia 5; 39-081-764-3143; entrées from $27).

7 Umberto

For a Slow Food taste of the city, this restaurant a few doors down from Palazzo Alabardieri is the one place not to miss. Simple and elegant but with a playful sense of decorative kitsch, it has a signature dish—the E tubettoni d’’o treddeta—­excellent pizzas, a wine list filled with local Irpinia, and several gluten-free options (Via Alabardieri 30; 39-081-418-555; entrées from $11).